Sales is a team effort

In today’s world, if you are not directly in sales you are supporting someone who is. This is why sales really is a team effort. Sales numbers and sales processes should be understood and owned by everybody in your organisation.

With anyone being able to contact anyone anywhere anytime, it is critical that all your staff understand:

What your company stands for (in language they and the customers understand);

What your company’s philosophy is;

What the company does;

How “we sell and service customers around here”; and

That everyone in the business either sells directly or supports someone who sells.

How many people in your organisation have been specifically trained in communication, customer service, and selling skills?

All our people need to be trained in the necessary sales and customer service skills so they are in the best position to handle and manage customers’ interactions (face-to-face, phone-based, or on social media) and ensure that our organisations are well placed to best serve our customers.

Even if the customer is wrong about something, it’s all in how we handle it that means the difference between a positive and negative experience.

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Core sales and service competencies should be defined and included in everyone’s job descriptions, and be made a conscious part of all roles through effective, relevant training and on-the-job coaching support so they become a way of life, not just a fad.

So, next time you decide to train your sales staff in selling skills and processes, make sure they are the right selling processes and skills suitable for your business environment, and do yourself, your team and your customers a favour by also including all your other staff in the same training.

The rewards are great in terms of teamwork, customer satisfaction, staff alignment, customer retention and, of course, better sales results.

Sue Barrett is the founder and chief executive of the innovative and forward thinking sales advisory and education firm Barrett and the online sales education and resource platform www.salesessentials.com. Striving to develop and deliver better sales standards and strategies to help people and businesses sell better, Sue is a sales philosopher, strategist, speaker, trainer, writer, adviser and selling better activist.

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